4/5/13

I'm currently reading Renata Adler's Speedboat and came across this paragraph that, I thought, made a pretty excellent prose poem all by itself (a common occurrence in Adler's work, to be sure):

Excellent evidence. "The source said that the investigators considered the responses of the dogs 'excellent evidence,'" the Times reported. "In each case the two dogs reacted positively to Mr. Hoffa's scent. One by standing up," the story went on, "and the other by sitting down." Since Will is a lawyer and I used to be an investigative reporter, we conclude that the dogs went to different schools, one to a sitting school, one to a standing school, but anyway to different schools.

4/3/13

I interviewed good friend and great writer Adrian Van Young for The Rumpus. We talked about genre fiction, the sublime, MFA programs, and uncanny fog tendrils:

Because if you’re constantly held in a state of suspense as to whether the fog tendrils are going to grow arms and take someone down to the underworld, or gibbons come riding down out of the sky, then it’s going to foreground that other, human tension of whether Character A is going to rise to the task and save Character B, or whether Character C is going to change his ways by the end. It’s parallel tension in parallel worlds.

4/2/13

I'm very pleased to say that I have a short story in the newest edition of NOON. NOON is one of the only magazines I read back to front each issue, and it is a real honor to make another appearance. The issue includes great pieces from Lydia Davis, James Yeh, Deb Olin Unferth, Anya Yurchyshyn, Clancy Martin, Brandon Hobson, and many more. The issue recently got a nice write-up in the LA Times by David L. Ulin. I like the claim that the pieces form "a tapestry of stories in which friends and lovers, parents and children circle each other like satellites, connecting in only the most elliptical ways."In addition, I will be reading at the NOON launch party at The Center for Fiction on May 8th. Noy Holland, Christine Schutt, James Yeh, Deb Olin Unferth, and Diane Williams (presenting a Brandon Hobson story) will also read.